MANAPOURI, LAKE

Lake Manapouri is the deepest of the southern glacial
lakes with a depth of 1,468 ft; the lake is 600 ft above sea
level which means that the bed is 870 ft below sea level.
Lake Manapouri is smaller than Te Anau, being 59 sq. miles in
area and 18 miles long, but with its extremely irregular
shoreline, countless islands, and steep forested mountain
ranges, often snow capped, it has earned the description “the
loveliest lake in New Zealand.” The shoreline is indented by
the South, West, North, and Hope Arms, and except for a few
miles along the eastern side is entirely bush clad. A small
village and accommodation house near the outlet at the east
end of the lake caters for tourist needs, and there are
launch trips, boating, fishing, hunting, and other out-door
sports. Some very fine launch trips are available, commencing
from a natural boat anchorage in Pearl Harbour on the Waiau
River at the outlet (1,363 cusec discharge). The most
impressive trip is that to the head of the lake, past Channel
Islands, Hope Arm, and Pomona Island, and finally to the
mouth of the Spey River where an 11-mile walking track leads
to Doubtful Sound. Occasionally charter flights can be made
from Manapouri and these reveal a wealth of impressive and
beautiful mountain scenery.

The concluding stages of a hydro-electric scheme, whereby
the lake waters will be diverted through a tunnel to Doubtful
Sound to generate power for an aluminium industry, have now
been reached. Future development may involve the raising of
the level of Manapouri and, possibly, of Te Anau to a
considerable height and this will undoubtedly cause great
changes in the appearance of these lakes.

The first Europeans to reach Lake Manapouri (in 1852) were
C. J. Nairn and W. H. Stephen. Exploration was carried out
intermittently after 1888, in which year Professor Mainwaring
Brown, of the University of Otago, lost his life in the
ranges west of the lake. Toward the end of last century, the
Government cut tracks and built huts between Manapouri and
some of the western fiords, but through lack of interest
these were neglected for many years. In 1921 Leslie Murrell
reopened the track through Wilmot Pass (2,100 ft) to Deep
Cove at the head of Malaspina Sound and for many years he
conducted tourist walking trips from Manapouri to a lodge on
the Sound. In recent years this track has been improved and
further huts have been built by the Manapouri-Doubtful Sound
Tourist Company. This route was originally discovered by R.
Murrell when searching for Mainwaring Brown in December 1888,
and its possibilities were confirmed in 1897 by E. H. Wilmot
who surveyed much of the surrounding country.

The ancient name for the lake was Moturau, “Hundred
Islands”. The present name is a variation of Manawapouri,
which is usually translated as “Lake of the Sorrowing
Heart”.

From the 1966 Encyclopaedia

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How to cite this page: . 'MANAPOURI, LAKE', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966.Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 22-Apr-09URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/manapouri-lake